The first three months of the Leveson inquiry into press standards cost £855,300, figures show.

A breakdown of the expenses during the startup period of mid-July to 31 October was posted on the inquiry's website.

The biggest sum was spent on paying inquiry secretariat staff, who took £376,100, while counsel to the inquiry were paid £215,400.

Accommodation costs, including the price of the hearing room and annex plus office accommodation, came to £85,000 while the costs of the hearing itself came to £23,600.

The seminars that ran prior to the inquiry and were addressed by newspaper editors, academics and others cost £93,000.

Some £4,000 was spent on office running costs in the first quarter, while IT and telecommunications came to £35,400, and assessors' remuneration added up to £22,800.

The panel of assessors appointed at the start of the inquiry receive a daily allowance for providing expertise on their line of work to the hearings.

The assessors, who include Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti and former Channel Four News political editor Elinor Goodman, do not all claim their daily allowance.

During the three-month period in question, the inquiry team and counsel were recruited, a substantial number of requests for evidence were sent out and a large amount of information was received and considered in preparation for the oral evidence sessions, inquiry officials said.

Although formal evidence sessions did not start until the middle of November, a number of directions hearings took place during September and October.

As the figures cover the startup period, they do not reflect the average monthly costs for the inquiry. Expenditure will be published on a quarterly basis.

David Cameron set up the Leveson inquiry in July in response to revelations that the News of the World commissioned a private detective to hack murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's phone after she disappeared in 2002.

The first part of the inquiry, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, is looking at the culture, practices and ethics of the press in general and is due to produce a report by next September.

The second part, examining the extent of unlawful activities by journalists, will not begin until detectives have completed their investigation into alleged phone hacking and corrupt payments to police, and any prosecutions have been concluded.

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